War Crimes in Fallujah: Alexander Cockburn

[teryang]

http://www.counterpunch.org/

"Let Them Drink Sand!"

<snip>If there is anything that should fuel the outrage of the antiwar movement, it is surely the destruction of Fallujah and the war crimes being inflicted by US commanders on its civilian population, who are now being denied the most basic and essential source of life, water.

This is not the first time that US forces have cut water supplies, something explicitly forbidden under Article 14 of the second protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which reads as follows:

"Starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. It is therefore prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless for that purpose, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works." <snip>

<snip>Here at CounterPunch we are in receipt of a compelling dossier of the denial of water to Iraqi civilians, assembled by Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq (CASI)], whose briefing may also be studied at http://www.casi.org.uk/>

[Kagemusha]

1. Just remember, the UN gave the US immunity for all this.

And for anything else they do until next summer.

[mike_c]

2. no, they did not....

The U.S. withdrew its U.N. motion for renewal of immunity for war crimes last summer in the face of overwhelming security council opposition.

Bremer included an executive order in his last minute amendments of Iraqi law barring the puppet Iraqi government from prosecuting U.S. forces for war crimes. But there is no longer U.N. immunity.

[RebelYell]

3. From the original report

~~~~~~~~

Evidence for the denial of water

Tall Afar

On 19 September 2004, the Washington Post reported that US forces ‘had turned
off’ water supplies to Tall Afar ‘for at least three days’. Turkish television reported
a statement from the Iraqi Turkoman Front that ‘Tall Afar is completely surrounded.
Entries and exits are banned. The water shortage is very serious’. Al-Manar television
in Lebanon interviewed an aid worker who stated that ‘the main problem facing the
people of Tall Afar and adjacent areas is shortage of water’. Relief workers reported a
shortage of clean wateriv. Moreover, the Washington Post reports that the US
army failed to offer water to those fleeing Tall Afar, including children and
pregnant women.

Samarra

‘Water and electricity cut off’ during the assault on Samarra on Friday 1
October 2004, according to Knight Ridder Newspapersvi and the Independent.
The Washington Post explicitly blames ‘U.S. forces’ for this. Iraqi TV station Al-
Sharqiyah reported that technical teams were working to ‘restore the power and
water supply and repair the sewage networks in Samarra’. Al Jazeera interviewed an
aid worker who confirmed that ‘the city is experiencing a crisis in which power and
water are cut off’, as well as the commander of the Samarra Police, who reported
that ‘there is no electricity and no water’.

Fallujah

On 16 October the Washington Post reported that:
‘Electricity and water were cut off to the city just as a fresh wave of strikes
began Thursday night, an action that U.S. forces also took at the start of assaults on
Najaf and Samarra.
Residents of Fallujah have told the UN’s Integrated Regional Information
Networks that ‘they had no food or clean water and did not have time to store
enough to hold out through the impending battle. The water shortage has
been confirmed by other civilians fleeing Fallujah, Fadhil Badrani, a BBC
journalist in Falluja, confirmed on 8 November that ‘the water supply has been cut
off’.
In light of the shortage of water and other supplies, the Red Cross has attempted
to deliver water to Fallujah. However the US has refused to allow shipments of
water into the Fallujah until it has taken control of the city.
Other cases
There have been allegations that the water supply was cut off during the assault
on Najaf in August 2004, and during the invasion of Basra in 2003. We have not
investigated these claims.

Justifications for the denial of water

Some military analysts have attempted to justify the denial of water on tactical or
humanitarian grounds. Ian Kemp, editor of military journal ‘Jane’s Defense
Weekly’, argues that
‘The longer the city is sealed off with the insurgents inside, the more
difficult it is going to be for them. Eventually, their supplies of food and water are
going to dwindle’.
Barak Salmoni, assistant professor in National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, told the San Francisco Chronicle that civilians
would probably be encouraged to leave Fallujah ‘by cutting off water and other
supplies‘. These arguments are deeply flawed on legal, humanitarian and
political grounds. The majority of the population of Fallujah fled before the
American attack. Those who have not already fled Fallujah are forced to remain,
since roads out of the city have been blocked, including by British troops.
Not only are those remaining unable to leave, but they are likely to consist
largely of those too old, weak, or ill to flee – precisely the groups which will
be most severely affected by a shortage of water.

~~~~~~~~

http://www.casi.org.uk/briefing/041110denialofwater.pdf

[TheFarseer]

4. No matter what you think of the war

just remember, we're not doing ourselves any favors by crying warcrimes. It kind of looks unpatriotic.

[Webster Green]

5. That is one of the stupidest statements I've ever heard!

You can't be serious, right?

[RC]

7. He forgot which BB he was on.

[teryang]

6. I'll say whatever I want thankyou.

Crying, is that like whining? That one of those codewords you've picked up?

[mike_c]

8. nice, another "good German...."

Shhh, don't mention the war crimes....

[LibertyorDeath]

9. I wonder if the Germans said this about the Nazi's

"we're not doing ourselves any favors by crying warcrimes"

"It kind of looks unpatriotic."

No.... Dissent is Patriotic!!!!

Dissent is Patriotic!!!

Dissent against War Crimes is the least you can do as part of the Human Species.

DISSENT IS PATRIOTIC!!!

[Jack Rabbit]

12. Patriotism means telling the truth

The truth is that Bush and his aides lied in order to drum up support for an invasion that they knew had nothing to do with banned biochemical weapons or terrorist plots. The truth, which they knew well, is that Saddam was no immediate threat to his weakest neighbor. The truth is that Iraq is not a liberation, it is colonial piracy.

That makes the invasion of Iraq a war crime on its face. Shall we go on and discuss the circumvention of conventions prohibiting the use of torture in Bush's off shore gulags? Yes, we need to tell that truth, too.

The truth is that the Bush administration is the nastiest collection of war criminals in over half a century. I would like to see them answer for their crimes. That would cleanse the name of America from the muck that these criminals have smeared on it.

[drdtroit]

16. What???? n/t

[msgadget]

10. Those are our guys over there

fighting for their lives, following orders and hoping to survive the traps laid for them.

[colonel odis]

11. yeah, they're "our guys." but they're also destroying a country

that didn't attack us, they've committed atrocities in abu ghraib, and they're doing it all in the service of halliburton.

sorry, but i'm no longer sure which side i'm rooting for. because the country i thought was mine became one i don't recognize.

[msgadget]

14. I'm against the war too

I believe in patriotic dissent but I have a hard time blaming those at the bottom when the top is wholly responsible.

It's hard to watch, isn't it?

[Overseas]

15. War Crimes are Authorized by Those at the Top

And that is who we are angry about. It is those at the top who have decided that The Geneva Convention is "quaint" and does not apply in the "war on terror." They are the ones who disrespect the soldiers on the ground by disavowing international agreements and laws that were created to protect ALL soldiers (including our own) and civilians from torture and being slowly murdered by deliberate dehydration and other crimes against humanity.

[msgadget]

17. Absolutely,

not the misused soldiers.

[indepat]

13. Cockburn is preaching to a people, most of whom don't give a diddledy-fuck

about such piffles, or so it would seem.